Facebook buys WhatsApp for $19billion to make world ‘more open and connected’

The deal is comprised of $12billion in stock, $4billion in cash and $3billion in restricted shares (Picture: AP/Patrick Sison)

Facebook has bought mobile messaging service WhatsApp for $19billion (£11.4billion).

Mark Zuckerberg’s social media company will now take control of WhatsApp’s 450million users to help continue Facebook’s aim of making ‘the world more open and connected’.

WhatsApp, Mr Zuckerberg said, would still work independently and continue to be based at its current headquarters in Mountain View, California – just seven miles from Facebook’s head offices in Menlo Park.

The Facebook CEO and founder added that WhatsApp ‘on its way to connecting one billion people’ will complement Facebook’s own messaging services.

‘Facebook Messenger is widely used for chatting with your Facebook friends, and WhatsApp for communicating with all of your contacts and small groups of people,’ Mr Zuckerberg said.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said he was ‘thrilled’ by the acquisition (Picture: AP/Paul Sakuma)

‘Since WhatsApp and Messenger serve such different and important uses, we will continue investing in both and making them each great products for everyone.’

The founder of WhatsApp, Jan Koum, who has known Mr Zuckerberg for many years, said: ‘We’re excited and honoured to partner with Mark and Facebook as we continue to bring our product to more people around the world.’

Mr Koum will join the Facebook board of directors, while WhatsApp, much like Instagram after its acquisition by Facebook in 2012, will continue to operate as a standalone application.

‘The WhatsApp tie-up makes sense for Facebook. It eliminates a major competitor to its own messenger service and gains a foothold into non-US markets where WhatsApp is strong,’ Jason Sumner, technology analyst at The Economist Intelligence Unit, told Metro. ‘The user base is also younger.’

He added: ‘How Facebook makes money from the purchase in the short term is a question mark, but it is less concerned about this than establishing itself further in mobile social networking, especially in developing markets.’